Tuesday news roundup

Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) will head into the hills of the Tour de Pologne on Tuesday ready to test his climbing legs at WorldTour level for the first time since his rollercoaster Giro d’Italia.

“I’m looking forward to getting stuck in,” Yates, who will turn 26 on Tuesday, told Cyclingnews at the start of stage 3. He finished the stage safely to remain in 28th overall, in the same time as all the top names.

Italian Marta Bastianelli won a sprint finish with the great Marianne Vos to foil the strong Dutch team and strike gold in the European Championships road race on Sunday.

The Oranje riders seemed to be controlling affairs at the end of the 130km race, ready to set up victory at the Glasgow Green finish for Vos, only for former world champion Bastianelli to beat her to the punch with a scintillating final burst.

Richie Porte (BMC Racing) has resumed training after fracturing his collarbone during the Tour de France and has confirmed he will ride the Vuelta a Espana and then target the hilly world road race championships in Innsbruck, Austria, at the end of September.

The Tasmanian spent the second half of July watching the Tour de France on the sofa at his home in Monaco after crashing out of the race before the peloton hit the cobbles of stage 9 to Roubaix.

As soon as one individual or one team begins to dominate an aspect of our sport, spectators become uncomfortable, looking for a change, an alternative to the status quo.

This isn’t a unique moment for cycling. It’s a sport that rewards and idolises the losers and outcasts and attacks its winners.

People loved Raymond Poulidor for coming second and ignored Jacques Anquetil for winning five Tour de France titles. A spectator punched Eddy Merckx in the abdomen, preventing a sixth yellow jersey. We remember Marco Pantani but try to forget Lance Armstrong.

Fresh off the Tour de France, Tejay van Garderen led a BMC Racing podium sweep Monday during the prologue time trial at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, covering the 5.3km course in 6:27 to finish ahead of US time trial champion Joey Rosskopf and teammate Tom Bohli.

Starting last, van Garderen sprinted out of the start house and quickly set a pace that clearly looked to put him in with a good chance of taking the stage win. Setting the fastest time at the turnaround, van Garderen continued to press the pace on the descent to the finish.

Tejay van Garderen will ride for EF Education First-Drapac in 2019, describing his impending switch from BMC Racing Team as “a necessary thing to do.” The American has been a professional since 2010 and has twice finished fifth overall at the Tour de France, in 2012 and 2014.

Van Garderen has struggled to reach the same level in three-week races since he abandoned the 2015 Tour in the final week while lying third overall. The 29-year-old placed second overall at this year’s Tour of California, and he began the Tour de France in support of BMC teammate Richie Porte, eventually placing 32nd overall in Paris. Van Garderen won the prologue of the Tour of Utah on Monday.